Thinking of travelling to Morocco with a pet? Click below to read more about the process we’ve followed.

Our last trip to Morocco just before Covid was such a simple process, stock up the motorhome with supplies, buy the tickets and go. Alas this time has been a little trickier because we are now travelling with a dog.

The information below is the process that we have followed to enter Morocco and more importantly return back to the EU. It’s been tricky to navigate for the first time and  has caused more than a few extra grey hairs!! We are by no means experts, but having just trodden the path, the information provided is based on our own experience.

Before following any of the process below firstly your dog needs to be microchipped.

• EU PET PASSPORT If you are from the UK and are travelling on an Animal Health Certificate, the first thing to do is obtain an EU pet passport. There are vets in both Spain and Portugal that will issue these. As long as you keep the rabies vaccinations up to date within the EU and don’t allow a UK vet to enter information into the passport this will be valid for the life of the pet. Some vets will transfer current rabies vacs info others won’t. When we got Nutmeg’s passport a couple of years ago we simply e mailed several vets to check whether they could help. Both Petsworld at La Zenia & Clinica Vetinaria in Albufeira are two that we know will issue them.

• RABIES VACCINATION Ensure your dog has a recent rabies booster. Nutmegs last booster was just over 12 months ago, because it was a 3 year vaccination (administered at Petsworld La Zenia), technically we didn’t need to re vaccinate this year. However as one of the conditions of travel is to obtain a titration serology test we were advised to have a booster to ensure that she had the required amount of antibodies.

• TITRE TEST Once the rabies booster has been administered there is a wait period of 30 days (minimum) before the titre test can be carried out. The test checks for the presence of the antibody that neutralises rabies in your pet’s blood. The presence of the antibody in sufficient amounts signifies that the pet has been vaccinated and is immune to rabies, it basically measures the effectiveness of the rabies vaccine on your pet. The level of antibodies needs to be greater than 0.5UI / ml and must be recorded in the passport in section V. Once the blood is drawn this has to be sent to an approved EU laboratory for testing. After the test is carried out it is valid for the life of the dog providing the rabies vaccinations are kept up to date. Prices for these tests vary greatly. We got quoted €145 at Petsworld but as this meant staying in the same area for 7-8 weeks we decided to opt for a vet closer to the port of Algeciras and used Central Veterinario Brulina . They quoted us €150 for their standard 2-3 week service or €200 for the express service beforehand. We opted for the standard service as we’d built in time. Unfortunately despite having this in writing when we went to pay they told us they’d had a recent price increase and it had gone up by €50! Although we argued the point (using deep l translate), we really had no choice but to pay up. Our results took 15 days to return. We were lead to believe that we needed an original signed and stamped copy of the titre certificate, however the lab that carried out our test the Instituto Valenciano de Microbiologia only provide copies digitally. We did have some e mails back and forth with both them and the vet as our original copy did not show a digital signature and the link they sent to obtain one had an error. Eventually after some insistence on our part they forwarded the correct copy. Ours also had a couple of mistakes on our address so it’s best to double check.  VERY IMPORTANT as of 6^th November 2023 the Spanish authorities will no longer accept a titre test where the blood has been drawn in the UK, even if it has been processed at an approved EU lab. We found this out after already paying £190 to get our dog tested hence re testing in Spain.

• VET HEALTH CHECK Before crossing  it is also necessary to have an Official Health Certificate, which certifies that the animal does not have any symptoms of infectious-contagious disease. We returned to Brulina for this who charged €30. We understand that this needs to be within 24 hours of travel (although we have read info that states 10 days we decided to play it safe). It was really just a paperwork exercise, we received a health check document and a QR code for the port authorities. NOTE we needed the dogs passport, titre test certificate, our passports and our V5 document for this. The vet called the PIF office on our behalf and made an appointment within a couple of hours.

• PIF OFFICE The PIF office at Algeciras will issue the export certificate . You need to take the Pet passport, QR code and health certificate obtained at the vets. We took a copy of the titre test but didn’t need it. This process must be carried out within 24hrs of crossing. NOTE the building is called the Puesto de Control Fronterizo  and the Edificio de Sanidad Animal is located on the first floor.

Locations

PIF GPS 36.134844 -5.440182

Centro Veterinario Brulina  GPS 36.185236 -5.443860

So sleepless nights and grey hairs are now behind us, Moroccan adventure awaits!

Andi, Paul and Nutmeg